Thursday, July 18, 2013

Wash this! A Tumblr from Abraham's Grandchildren

Now this is funny.

From Abraham's Grandchildren, written by an "Ashkenazi Jew, Litvak, bicultural, Zionist, Semite, loves Israel,
loves the many cultures of the Middle East. Hates racism, bad history,
and narrishkeit about Khazars." Check it out.

Some idiot in the Israel tag is now describing the Birthright
trips as ‘bluewashing’. Some brief research shows this to be one of
JVP’s new terms, joining ‘pinkwashing’ (Israel’s sinister and cynical
insistence on giving its LGBTQ citizens rights and the protection of the
law, in addition to recognition of same-sex marriages from outside the
country) and ‘greenwashing’ (Israel’s cynical and sinister insistence on
doing environmental shit).

‘Bluewashing’ appears to encompass any activity that involves
encouraging Jews to feel a connection to Israel. This is sometimes known
as ‘heritage tourism’ when other people do it.

I love the pathologizing of Israeli behavior, allow me to propose the following:

redwashing—Magen David Adom cynically provides disaster relief
orangewashing—Israel cynically exports Jaffa oranges
yellowwashing—Israeli cyclists cynically ride in the Tour de France
purplewashing—Israelis cynically pretend to care that Alice Walker
won’t let The Color Purple be translated into Hebrew, when they have all
read it in English anyway
indigowashing—Israelis cynically wear skinny jeans to convince the world they are hip and stylish
graywashing—Israel cynically gives old people pensions
washingwashing—Israelis cynically continue to do laundry